Annan Has No Plans to Visit Baghdad

EDITH M. LEDERER

Published
6:00 pm CST, Friday, March 14, 2003

Associated Press Writer

When former U.N. chief Javier Perez de Cuellar went to Baghdad in 1991 to try to stop the last Gulf War, Saddam Hussein humiliated him. When the current secretary-general, Kofi Annan, traveled to Iraq in 1998 to avert American and British airstrikes, he cut a deal that Saddam flouted months later.

With all signs pointing to a new U.S.-led war against Iraq, Annan has been asked repeatedly when he's going to fly to Baghdad to try to stop it.

His answer is simple: He has no plans to go to Iraq.

As he explained last week, "In the present circumstances, I'm not sure what a visit to Iraq would achieve and what message one would take to Iraq."

Instead, Annan has focused on the bitterly divided Security Council, meeting privately with each ambassador from the 15-member body to search for a possible compromise, and warning that unilateral military action would violate the U.N. Charter.

"As a defender of the charter, he feels that if the council can remain united, that's in the best interest of the United Nations and the rule of law," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said Thursday. "I think that's something he wants to try to protect."

But Annan isn't ready to engage in "unilateral diplomacy" with Iraq, he said.

The circumstances were very different in early 1998, when U.N. weapons inspectors were kept out of Saddam's palaces and the secretary-general "felt he had a role to play," Eckhard said.

"Today, the inspection process is going full blast, so I don't think he thinks there's the same need for personal diplomacy in Baghdad," the U.N. spokesman said Thursday.

There are other important differences: Then, the Security Council was more united in its policy toward Iraq and the five veto-wielding nations _ the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France _ wanted a way out of the crisis.

Iraq also let it be known through Middle East leaders "that they were ready to compromise, and the council indicated that under the right conditions they might be prepared to compromise," Eckhard recalled in a 1998 interview. After four meetings with the council, Annan had instructions on what he could discuss with the Iraqis.

Today, the council is badly fractured over how to disarm Iraq.

France, Russia, China and Germany want peaceful disarmament through strengthened inspections. The United States, Britain and Spain are demanding U.N. approval of an ultimatum threatening war.

The council is also divided on the issue of "regime change" in Iraq _ a top U.S. goal, but not on the agenda of any other council nation.

Another factor in any Annan visit to Baghdad would have to be Saddam's record of dealing with secretary-generals.

Perez de Cuellar went to Baghdad in January 1991 _ days after the United States gave its final warning that Iraq would be attacked if Saddam didn't pull his troops out of Kuwait _ to try to get him to withdraw. The U.N. chief offered the Iraqi leader progress on the Israel-Palestinian issue as a carrot.

Hours later, Saddam dismissed the proposal, and made it public "to ridicule him," said Giandomenico Picco, who was U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs from 1973 to 1992, including Perez de Cuellar's tenure.

Soon after, a U.S.-led coalition launched an attack, first by air then on the ground, that routed the Iraqi troops.

Seven years later, when Annan flew to Baghdad in February 1998, he signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iraqis to allow the inspection of palaces, which averted U.S. and British airstrikes. But Iraq reneged on its part of the bargain and in late October it cut all dealings with the weapons inspectors _ a blow to Annan's February agreement.

The inspectors left Baghdad in December 1998, hours before U.S. and British aircraft started bombing Iraq to punish Saddam for not cooperating with inspections. The inspectors returned in November after a nearly four-year absence.

For Picco, there is one lesson for Annan.

"I came to the conclusion a long time ago that Iraq is an issue that only the Security Council can touch, not the secretary-general," Picco said.